U.S. World Cup Live Blog: U.S. Loses 1-0 To Germany But Still Advances Out Of 'Group Of Death'
Full time, 1-0 Germany: The U.S. were unable to score the equalizer in this one, and Germany walks away with the 1-0 victory. However, thanks to Portugal's 2-1 win over Ghana, the U.S. has advanced out of the so-called "Group of Death."
Jurgen Klinsmann just spoke with ESPN's Jeremy Schaap:
"It's huge. It's huge. ... Overall, tremendous energy, tremendous effort from the whole side. It's huge. It's huge for us getting out of this group. Everybody said you had no chance. We took that chance, we move on, and now we want to prove a point. ... This is a huge, huge step and now we can't wait for the round of 16.
"We still can do better. We got through the group, but we have to do better. And we will do better."
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93', 1-0 Germany: A brilliant rush from the Americans led to Bedoya getting what looked like a golden opportunity, but Philipp Lahm came sliding through the box to make a save. Off the throw-in, Dempsey ended up with a header attempt from in close, but his header went just over the crossbar.
91', 1-0 Germany: Four minutes of added time here.
89', 1-0 Germany: Oezil comes off, and Andre Schurrle will come on for Germany. This comes after DaMarcus Beasley was called for a questionable foul while pushing
83', 1-0 Germany: Zuso is off, and Deandre Yedlin is on for the U.S. This time, Zusi didn't take his sweet time getting to the sideline.
81', 1-0 Germany: The biggest play of the day for the U.S. comes from ... Portugal. Ghana just fell behind 2-1 after Christiano Ronaldo scored the go-ahead goal. That's huge for the U.S. A 1-0 loss, provided that 2-1 Portugal lead holds, would be enough for the U.S. to advance.
76', 1-0 Germany: Mario Götze enters the game as a substitution for Schweinsteiger.
74', 1-0 Germany: Jermaine Jones just collided head-on-head at full speed with Alejandro Bedoya while trying to make something happen offensively. That's twice that Jones rammed rammed unsuspecting into somebody today. The first time, it was the ref. This time, it was a teammate. That looked ugly.
70', 1-0 Germany: The U.S. got its first corner kick of the second half, and Zusi's ball from the left corner didn't make it to the men wearing white.
66', 1-0 Germany: The U.S. had a little something cooking, but Dempsey and Jones were on two different pages (and running at two different speeds). The U.S. needs to do something soon, because going down 2-0 would bring them much closer to doom.
On the positive side, loud "U-S-A!" chants are now filling the stadium. We'll see if that provides any boost whatsoever for the tired American legs.
62', 1-0 Germany: Now Kyle Beckerman has been issued a yellow card for a takedown of Bastian Schweinsteiger, who's been the victim of some aggressive plays lately.
59', 1-0 Germany: Brad Davis has been substituted out for Alejandro Bedoya.
55', 1-0 Germany: The Germans have the lead.
Moments after Tim Howard made a spectacular save, the ball bounced to Howard's right. Thomas Müller stepped up and booted the ball perfectly through about four bodies standing between him and the net.
54', 0-0: Free kick from 33 meters for Germany after a Bradley foul, and Fabian Johnson heads it away to avoid trouble.
47', 0-0: Omar Gonzalez just headed a ball away from danger, with Ozil looking to score this match's first goal. Great defending there to keep the ball out of trouble.
46', 0-0: Miroslav Klose has entered the match in place of Lukas Podolski. Look out for Klose. No subs for the U.S. just yet.
Second half has begun.
Halftime 0-0: Jermaine Jones was trying to get something going, sending a pass to Michael Bradley, but Bradley couldn't handle it, something that's all too familiar for the U.S.
So this one heads to halftime tied nil-nil. Over in the Portugal-Ghana game, Portugal has a 1-0 advantage. We'll see if that affects how the second half is played.
While Germany applied heavy pressure right out of the gate, the pace slowed down in the latter half of the first, and the field leveled out a bit.
Overall, Germany has three shots on goal and two that missed the net, while the U.S. has two shots that missed and zero on target.
It's setting up to be a pretty thrilling second half of soccer.
37', 0-0: Omar Gonzalez got a little too aggressive on Bastian Schweinsteiger, and Gonzalez was issued a yellow card for his midfield takedown.
35', 0-0: The best shot of the match thus far belongs to Mesut Özil, who found some space to operate inside the box and sent a dart toward net, right through Matt Besler's legs. Unfortunately for him, it was aimed directly at Howard, who stood tall and sent the shot aside. That was a bullet, though.
28', 0-0: The referee just missed a foul on ... the referee! Jermaine Jones was running hard to the box, and neither he nor the official saw each other. The two collided, with Jones taking the worst of it. That's rather unfortunate for both parties.
22', 0-0: The U.S. finally created a solid opportunity, with Bradley passing to Zusi. Zusi aimed for the crossbar from the top of the box but his shot went just high. Still, that's a Grade A scoring chance for the U.S. after spending much of the first 22 minutes chasing and defending.
18', 0-0: Tim Howard once again comes up big, this time coming out to the top of the box to negate a German opportunity.
12', 0-0: Benedikt Howedes was just issued a yellow card for getting his foot tangled with Jermaine Jones near midfield. Jones was in a full sprint and had loads of open space in front of him, and the referee should have let the play continue on. Nevertheless, he blew it dead and issued the yellow card.
9', 0-0: Tim Howard was just tested with a cross through the box that missed its intended target but nevertheless required a diving save. Jerome Boateng has sent a few balls through the box already.
6', 0-0: Germany continues to control the pace of the game, as the U.S. has spent the bulk of the time chasing and defending. If there was any belief that the Germans might come out and try to play for a draw today, it should be cast aside already.
2', 0-0: Germany has controlled possession since the start, getting first chance to get a feel on how the pitch is responding to the wet conditions.
1', 0-0: This match is underway!
11:54 a.m. ET: The United States national anthem is being played, and we're just minutes away from this one beginning.
11:30 a.m. ET: The good news is that in a half-hour, this match will begin as scheduled. The bad news, perhaps, is that the weather is not going to make it very easy. Fans are making it to the stadium as best they can, and the pitch is sure to be affected from the rain that continues to fall, but there won't be any delays.
As to whether the weather helps or hurts one team over the other, I'm not sure there's a major impact. I will say, with Germany all but guaranteed to advance, they may take a safer approach on some balls, choosing to ease up instead of going full bore and risking injury. So perhaps the rain may increase the chances that we see a nil-nil draw today, but really, it's hard to definitively say exactly how this weather will change the game.
10:27 a.m. ET: Some more perspective on how bad the rain is:
10:05 a.m. ET: It's not U.S.-related per se, but FIFA just came down with a massive penalty for Luis Suarez, who bit an Italian opponent on Tuesday. FIFA has banned Suarez from the next nine matches and has banned him from football for four months.
Apparently, the third bite was the final strike, because that's a pretty hefty punishment.
9:23 a.m. ET: A major factor today will be the wet weather that's blanketed Recife for some time now. To get an idea of just how drenched the city is, watch this Instagram video.
Yikes.
9 a.m. ET: Will today be one of the better days in the history of the U.S. Men's National Team, or will today bring about yet another disappointing result?
We'll find out fairly soon, as the U.S. will face Germany at 12 p.m. in the final match of group play.
For the U.S., it's fairly simple: Win or draw, and advance to the knockout stage. The same goes for Germany.
Now, if Germany wins today, things do get a little bit complicated. The fate of the United States at that point would depend on the final score and the outcome of the Portugal-Ghana match which will be taking place simultaneously as the U.S.-Germany match.
READ: USA-Germany Game Preview
So either way, we're going to know by 2 p.m. whether it's curtains for the U.S. or whether they will advance out of group play. They've made it through group play recently (in 2002 and 2010, to be specific) but if they can do it this year, in the so-called "Group of Death," it would represent a major step for U.S. soccer.
"I think it's just a big game for every one of us," U.S. defender Fabian Johnson said yesterday. "We are all excited and looking forward to it and it's one of the biggest matches of our lives for a lot of us, so we're excited."
"We are going to play this game to win it," USMNT manager Jurgen Klinsmann said this week. "We are not made for going into a game to end with a tie, that's just not in our DNA and it's not even in the DNA of the German side. They are both teams that want to get the results, both teams want to win the group. That's another thing you want to drive for because you want to possibly arrive at 16 as the winner of the group, so whatever happens at the end of the game, then we'll see. You'll see that yourselves, but we are definitely going in there with the approach that we want to push it and we want to go for gold and we want to get three points and this is really what we are driving for."
It'll be particularly noteworthy to watch how the Americans respond after letting Sunday's match against Portugal slip right through their fingers. Nearly everyone in the world believed they were on their way to advancing, but unfortunately for them, Cristiano Ronaldo was not one of them.
It'll also be interesting to see how both teams approach this game, knowing that a draw will get the job done. They'll like both try to play things a little bit safe, but not too safe.
So we shall see how this all plays out this afternoon in Recife. This live blog will have updates throughout the entire match, so check back for constant updates.
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